Youth Baseball Base Running At The Championship Level

Base running is one of the quickest areas to address to bring your youth baseball team to the championship level

. Hustle has nothing to do with talent or skill so all players on your roster can bring something to the table.

Championship base running is centered around four main factors, that when combined, are extremely intimidating to your opponents and thrusts your team to the next level of base running.

The first factor is the Hard 90 (or 60, 70 or 80 depending on the length of your base paths). It does not matter if your player has smashed a screaming grounder or it was a dribbler back to the pitcher, they always hustle through first base at full speed. This sets the tone that your team is here to play and also applies to a batter being walked or hit by a pitch.

Next it is critical your players understand that they must play aggressive, but at the same time be calm enough to listen. There are several drills you can utilize to hammer this point home as they run the bases hard, but listen to your direction as to either slide at the next base, keep running or return back diving to the base they just came from.

Baseball is a game played two bases at a time (that is why second base is scoring position) which brings you to the third main factor, running the bases two at a time. This only works if your players mentally understand that they need to run hard from first to third or second to home and get stopped by the coach. It does not work running from first to second, hesitate and then run to third. Your player will be out the majority of the time.

The last item to teach your squad on the overview of base running is they are responsible for their own decisions and act on those decisions. The split seconds saved by a player choosing to go from first to third on a ball that is front of them or tagging up and leaving on their own judgement (instead of being told by the coach) will always yield more runs. They end up being safe by two steps rather than being thrown out by two steps.

There are several technical factors to teach your boys about base running, but the understanding of these four critical factors will place them well ahead of their peers and scoring a lot of runs including those close runs that win tight ball games.

by: Mike Xavier

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